My stint with a language !

I will digress today from current affairs and will write on the language, no i am not writing on how we have ignored our own national language for a foreign one, neither will i plunge into some jingoism about nationalism, i am writing my experience of learning a foreign language and leave the cerebration to you.

At the very outset i would make it clear to you all that i am not a language prodigy, but i take interest in learning; so when i moved to Delhi from the sleepy town of Ajmer in Rajasthan i decided to take advantage of my sojourn in the national capital.

After a lot of contemplation i decided that i would learn German; not that i had any great inclination for it initially; the institute was the closest and i had a direct bus from my home and so i enrolled myself in Goethe Zentrum New Delhi.

From the first level which was at that time known as the "Grundstufe 1", i knew i had made the right choice.
German is spoken in only three countries of the world which are smaller in size and population when compared to the state of Uttar Pradesh in India but their Institutes are spread world wide in almost all principal cities of the world.

The didactic is superb and venerable. From day one you don't use a word of English or any other language for that matter. Innovation in teaching methodology reigns supreme ; games, conversations, team work, Grammar, everything is streamlined.

You actually have to fail intentionally as they don't leave any room for failure. teaching involves not only reading from a book but also listening to various situation you might face in Germany and how do people normally react to them and then simulate them.

As one advances in levels the standard gets higher but the classes remain equally inviting. From the study of business German to German Literature and economics everything is covered.

Its needless to say that i made excellent friends and contacts there.

I am not advertising for the language here, i tried to learn Spanish and French also later considering their more universal appeal and application, but the experience was not even half as enriching.

Kudos to the Germans who have made such deliberate efforts for their language, may we be someday inspired by them.


Suyasha